Items tagged with Windows XP

It's been one heck of a ride, but like all good things, the Windows XP era is officially coming to an end next month. For many users, the XP era ended long ago, though according to market research firm StatCounter, around 2 out of 10 PC users are still rocking the legacy OS after all these years, which is more than Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 combined. Microsoft is doing everything within its power to change that, even going so far as to offer incentive discounts on new systems. One of the newest promotions in the Microsoft Store is that users who buy a select new PC will receive a $50 gift card...Read more...

We've been talking about the demise of Windows XP for what seems like forever, but at the turn of the new year, a new reality came to face: Most of the world's ATMs are still running the OS. Given the fact that Windows XP's been on life-support for some time, it's unbelievable that so many banks still haven't updated their ATMs - it's totally unnecessary. Banks still running Windows XP in their ATMs have the benefit of being able to get special support contracts with Microsoft, and while the Redmond company is keeping mum on the actual costs, they're going to be much more than a standard contract....Read more...

In December, we talked about the "damned if we do, damned if we don't" situation Microsoft was finding itself in with Windows XP. At this point, the OS could be considered ancient - at least in software years - yet, it still has a massive following. The OS has been out for nearly 13 years, and since its release, we've seen three other major variants of Windows released, with the latest of course being 8. The fact that Windows XP isn't dead at this very moment is thanks to Microsoft's move to extend the support deadline a couple of years ago. With this looming April 8th "final" deadline, many XP...Read more...

A person could make a strong argument that Windows XP is the most loved version of Windows ever, lest there's another reason so many users are clinging to the legacy operating system until it's pried from their cold, dead hands. Even as Microsoft gets ready to stop supporting the OS in another two months, Windows XP not only commands a significant share of the market, but it's actually gaining users, according to tracking data provided by Net Applications. We don't want to overstate the point because for one, the increase in share is pretty small. According to Net Applications, Windows XP ended...Read more...

When at a bank machine, making a deposit or taking cash out, it's easy to overlook the finer details of what's going on in the background. Such as, what operating system it's running. Unless you walked up to a machine that had a blue-screen-of-death present, would you have guessed that it was running Windows? According to statistics, there's a 95% chance that it is. What's more, it's almost certain that it's Windows XP. As we've talked much about here, the support deadline for Windows XP is nearing fast, still set for April 8th, 2014. For end-users, this is an obvious problem - no one likes using...Read more...

In four months' time, Microsoft is set to cease all support for Windows XP, an OS it released on October 25, 2001. At that time, Intel's Pentium III was the hottest processor series on the planet, and NVIDIA's GeForce 2 Ti had been released just weeks earlier. The biggest hard drive at the time? A premium-priced 80GB. To call Windows XP "old-school" seems appropriate. Still, despite the OS being a relative dinosaur in OS years, much of the market still sticks with it. Earlier this month, we relayed some OS usage stats from Net Applications' latest update. There, we found that Windows 8.1 has been...Read more...

If you're still rocking Windows XP, we admire your dedication and ability to squeeze over a decade of use out of an operating system you presumably purchased long ago (nobody pirates XP, right?), but the end is nigh if you care at all about security. Come April 2014, Microsoft will cease supporting the legacy OS, thereby leaving your system vulnerable to new and emerging threats. You're not alone. According to StatCounter's data, over 20 percent of PCs still run XP, making it the second most popular version of Windows behind Windows 7 (nearly 52 percent). That's a pretty frightening statistic because...Read more...

Windows XP is a dead operating system (OS) walking. In exactly one year from today, Microsoft will cease supporting the legacy OS, which translates into no more security updates. Naturally the suits in Redmond would love it if every XP user -- legitimate or otherwise -- would make the switch to Windows 8, and if they did, the migration would effectively make the latest build nearly as popular as Windows 7. Even after all this time, Windows XP still maintains a 38.73 percent share of the desktop market, versus 3.17 percent for Windows 8, according to data by NetMarketShare. The two combined fall...Read more...

Windows XP might very well be the most loved operating system of all time (on the Windows side), but after nearly 10 years since being released, it's no longer the popular. That distinction now (finally) belongs to Windows 7, a popular OS in its own right. It's taken three years, but Windows 7's market share is now slightly ahead of XP at 42.76 percent and 42.52 percent, respectively. That's practically a tie, though Windows 7 has been gaining on XP for some time now, and in the months to come, the gap is expected to widen. An interesting side note at play here is the upcoming release of Windows...Read more...

Security firm Symantec is busy cleaning up a bit of egg on its face after pushing out a signature update that decided not to play nice with some Windows XP machines. Symantec disclosed the problem on its website, saying that the SNAFU only affected machines running a combination of Windows XP, the latest version of its SONAR technology, and certain third party software. "The root cause of the issue was an incompatibility due to a three way interaction between some third party software that implements a file system driver using kernel stack based file objects – typical of encryption drivers,...Read more...

Most businesses don't give a flying flip about owning the latest and greatest product just for the sake of having it, especially when their current solution is working. Case in point, there are still thousands of IT departments rocking Windows XP, both because it works and also because it's perceived as being too costly to upgrade. But is it really? Not according to Microsoft, which hammered out a blog post that essentially pleads with businesses running Windows XP to upgrade to Windows 7, if for no other reason than to save money. Wait, what? "Organizations that continue to retain a Windows XP...Read more...

People have a tendency to resist change, that's just the way it is. Underscoring this point is the fact that Windows XP is still the most dominant operating system on the desktop despite being released more than a decade ago. Maybe that wouldn't be the case if Microsoft jumped straight to Windows 7 instead of Vista, or perhaps human nature would have proved too strong a force either way. Regardless, XP is sitting pretty on nearly half of all PCs. According to the latest figures from Net Applications, Windows XP's finished off April with a 46.08 percent share of the desktop OS market, down from...Read more...

It may seem silly to start the countdown to the end of support for Windows XP (and Office 2003) a full two years in advance, but given that there are still home consumers and businesses still clinging to the decade old OS, perhaps the early warning is entirely appropriate. Particularly for IT departments, starting the upgrade cycle now ensures a better shot at the migration going smoothly. "If you still have some PCs running Windows XP and Office 2003 in your organization, now would be a good time to start migrating them to Windows 7 and Office 2010," Microsoft stated in a blog post. The other...Read more...

Windows XP has secured its spot in history as perhaps the most beloved version of Windows ever, and it's certainly a fan favorite to this day. That might be understating things. More than just a fan favorite, Windows XP, for better or worse, is the most used operating on the planet, according to data by Net Applications. The decade old OS can be found on almost half of all PCs with a 48.03 percent share of the OS market. That's down from 69.99 percent in November 2009 -- as far back as Net Applications allows us to look -- and down 50.5 percent in the month of September, but still well ahead of...Read more...